Small towns face uncertainty with smoking ban

Thursday

Dec 27, 2007 at 12:01 AMDec 27, 2007 at 9:51 AM

As the statewide smoking ban looms, questions remain about how to enforce the Smoke Free Illinois Act. "Everybody is waiting on the state," said Creve Coeur Police Chief Mike Button. "Nobody bothered to tell us how to handle the tickets."

Jordan Wilson

The statewide smoking ban that takes effect Jan. 1 appears to be just as cloudy as the smoke itself, especially for smaller towns in the Tri-County Area.

Although Gov. Rod Blagojevich stamped his approval on the law in July, a rules committee set to iron out the intricacies of the ban isn’t set to meet until Jan. 9.

Local police and government officials understand what violates the Smoke Free Illinois Act. They just have no clue how to enforce it.

"Everybody is waiting on the state," said Creve Coeur Police Chief Mike Button. "Nobody bothered to tell us how to handle the tickets."

The law did outline, however, lines smokers cannot infringe upon. Lighting up in the workplace and other indoor public places is restricted. Also, patrons must take their cigarettes at least 15 feet away from any entrance, exit, open windows and ventilators.

With many restrictions on a now-common ritual, there is a greater need for police patrol. But that police patrol can’t always be provided, especially by the smaller towns.

Roger Woodcock, the city administrator for the roughly 2,500 residents of Farmington, said: "I don’t think we’re going to be paying a police officer to go to an establishment looking for violations."

The small town has only five full-time and three part-time officers, Woodcock pointed out.

Button also expressed concern over manpower. He has seven full-time and three part-time officers, however, none went into law enforcement to see who’s smoking and who isn’t, the police chief notes.

"We aren’t the cigarette police," Button said. "Although we are now according to the Illinois (General Assembly)."

Metamora police Chief Mike Todd has yet to even scrape the convoluted surface of enforcing the ban. He said his department would just play "follow the leader."

They just have to find out who the leader is.

"I really haven’t given it a whole lot of thought as of yet," Todd said. "I’ve been sending e-mails to other departments to see how they’re going about it."

Even once smaller departments do find a path to follow, there will undoubtedly be wrinkles. Woodcock says it’s that way with any new legislation, especially any that affects a great number of people.

"There’s a lot of uncertainty," Woodcock said. "It’ll be trial and error, at least at the onset."